Conservation in the Internet Age: Threats and Opportunities

Since the earliest days of our nation, new communications and transportation networks have enabled vast changes in how and where Americans live and work. Transcontinental railroads and telegraphs helped to open the West; mass media and interstate highways paved the way for suburban migration. In our own day, the internet and advanced logistics networks are enabling new changes on the landscape, with both positive andnegative impacts on our efforts to conserve land and biodiversity. Emerging technologies have led to tremendous innovations in conservation science and resource management as well as education and advocacy efforts. At the same time, new networks have been powerful enablers of decentralization, facilitating sprawling development into previously undesirable or inaccessible areas.<P> Conservation in the Internet Age offers an innovative, cross-disciplinary perspective on critical changes on the land and in the field of conservation. The book: provides a general overview of the impact of new technologies and networks, explores the potentially disruptive impacts of the new networks on open space and biodiversity, presents case studies of innovative ways that conservation organizations are using the new networks to pursue their missions, considers how rapid change in the Internet Age offers the potential for landmark conservation initiatives<P> Conservation in the Internet Age is the first book to examine the links among land use, technology, and conservation from multiple perspectives, and to suggest areas and initiatives that merit further investigation. It offers unique and valuable insight into the challenges facing the land andbiodiversity conservation community in the early twenty-first century, andrepresents an important new work for policymakers, conservation professionals, and academics in planning, design, conservation and resource management, policy, and related fields.

Fifteen essays explore the positives and negatives of increased connectedness born of digital triumphs over distance. Positives of Internet proximity are increased effectivity in fund-raising, group building, and management of natural resources. The primary negative is human sprawl, a.k.a. "selective deconcentration," producing the resultant erasure of wild habitat. Leavitt is director of the Internet and Conservation Project at the Taubman Center for State and Local Government at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, and other contributors work primarily for various academic and governmental entities. The book has a companion website, and Island Press prints on recycled paper.
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Includes bibliographical references (p. 323-345) and index.

James N. Levitt is a fellow at the A. Alfred Taubman Center for State and Local Government at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and directs the Taubman Center's Internet and Conservation Project. Prior to coming to the Kennedy School, Levitt developed corporate strategy related to the emergence of the Internet and electronic commerce for Fortune 50 sized companies at GeoPartners Research, Inc. He is active as a director of several conservation organizations, including the Massachusetts Audubon Society, the Quebec-Labrador Foundation and the Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center at the University of Kansas. Levitt is a 1976 graduate of Yale College and earned his Master's in Public and Private Management from the Yale School of Management in 1980.

Networks and nature in the American experience / James N. Levitt — The Internet, new urban patterns, and conservation / William J. Mitchell — Rural rebound of the 1990s and beyond / Kenneth M. Johnson — Farmland in the age of the Internet: "Let them eat electrons"? / Ralph E. Grossi — Internet use in a high-growth, amenity rich region / James N. Levitt and John R. Pitkin — Rural development and biodiversity: a case study of greater Yellowstone / Andrew J. Hansen and Jay J. Rotella — The green Internet: a tool for conservation science / Leonard Krishtalka ... et al. — BirdSource: using birds, citizen science, and the Internet as tools for global monitoring / John W. Fitzpatrick and Frank B. Gill — Conservation advocacy and the Internet: the campaign to save Laguna San Ignacio / S. Jacob Scherr — Envisioning rural futures: using innovative software for community planning / William Roper and Brian H.F. Muller — The watershed approach, biodiversity, and community preservation: bold initiatives in conservation in Massachusetts / Bob Durand and Sharon McGregor — Natural amenities and locational choice in the new economy / Joel S. Hirschhorn — Conservation philanthropy and leadership: the role of network entrepreneurs / Peter R. Stein and James N. Levitt — Conclusion: a call for conservation innovation / James N. Levitt.